Find out how to identify the digital deceptions used to derail electoral integrity as African countries prepare for crucial polls.
Amid Africa’s highly anticipated 2024 election season, the continent is on high alert for potential surges in disinformation campaigns.
To counter such tactics, voters must be able to identify malign actors or accounts and recognise coordinated electoral disinformation campaigns. This empowers individuals to critically assess online information, enabling them to make informed decisions based on accurate and reliable sources rather than being swayed by deceptive narratives.
For example, on 17 January 2024, a network of seven Facebook pages based in Mali coordinated to amplify a live broadcast focusing on Russian cooperation with Alliance of Sahel States countries. The first Facebook page initially shared this post at 22:57:34 CAT on 17 January 2024. Within a mere six seconds, six other Facebook pages published the same post, at 22:57:40 CAT on the same date.Coordinated disinformation campaigns often flood social media platforms with large amounts of content, frequently sharing identical text or links. This is not the usual pattern for social media posts and raises suspicions of coordinated efforts.
By clicking on these accounts and analysing their past activity, you can determine if they consistently endorse a specific political agenda. Sample posts about the ‘Google-backed’ Russian hacker and the picture of posts used in a different context on Facebook. To identify coordinated campaigns, it is essential to examine whether the posts use clear identity signals, particularly those related to politics.